Eric's Thoughts

Hello all! This is a new concept for me, I've never done this 'Blog' thing before. But, I decided it would be a cool thing to start. So, first I'll give a summary of my experience at Basileia and then some thoughts about RCA , specifically for Small Groups in the fall.

Basileia....was cool. like, really cool. Now, for those of you who don't know or are too lazy to read Corey's post below, Basileia is a 5 day retreat during which everyone spends every minute with God. Naturally we're supposed to be doing this every day of our lives, but usually we suck and don't. God really convicted me of this and I set a goal this summer to have an hour long quiet time with God each morning (reading/prayer/meditation) and then be able to think about what I learned throughout the rest of the day. So far I've only have done half an hour due to my living arrangements (I'm sleeping on the floor at my friend's place because I can't move into my apartment until next weekend). But God is definetely on my mind more now, which is really cool. 2 Timothy 1:8 was also a big verse for me at Basileia. No compromise, don't be ashamed of the Gospel. This has gone well so far. My birthday was during Basileia (turned 20, woohoo!), and it turned out to be a very humbling experience, which was good. I'll let the pictures on facebook explain why it was humbling....

Anyway, so Small Groups. They're cool. You should join one. Now. We have one going on during the summer, so if you're around let me know. As I hope you've read in Corey's post, we have a new outreach-focused large group vision. We want to engage our campus in more ways and encourage spiritual discussions (Dennis will explain more about that later). Now, in order to do so, we ourselves should be used to spiritual discussions, and we should know what we believe. That's the role of Small Groups. They're a place where any question can be raised and any topic discussed. The members are like family and truly care about each other.

Some small groups dig really deep into a particular topic or book of the Bible, while others cover broader terms of what our faith is about and what it means to be a Christian. Each has its own purpose and both are awesome. If you've taken SGLAP or have led a SG before and are interested in doing so again, email me at shaffe@rpi.edu. If you're new and are interested in co-leading let me know, too. We can always use more small group leaders!

Peace,